François-André Vincent

Collection of the artist;

His inventory after death;

His sale after death, Paris, 17-19 October 1816, lot 61;

Descent of François Griois, brother-in-law of the artist;

Private Collection, Gisors, in the 1970s;

Anonymous sale, M^e Grandin, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 13 February 1981, unnumbered;

With M. W. Brady, New York, in 1984;

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Paris, 27 June 2002, lot 110;

Where acquired by the present owner.

Exhibited

Napoleon: An Intimate Portrait. A travelling exhibition from the Russell Etling Company featuring the Collection of Pierre-Jean Chalençon, Catalogue by Pierre-Jean Chalençon, Brett Topping and Russell Hull Etling, Russell Etling Company, 2005-2011, p. 18;

Versailles, Les Guerres de Napoléon. Louis François Lejeune, général et peintre, February-March 2012, no. 83;

Rueil-Malmaison, Napoléon, la passion d'un collectionneur, collection Chalençon, September-November 2012 (without catalogue).

'New York French Drawings', in The Burlington Magazine, CXXVI, August 1984, pp. 523-524, fig. 46;

J. Foucart and M. Laclotte, Nouvelles acquisitions du Département des Peintures (1983-1986), Paris 1987, p. 142;

J.-P. Cuzin, 'Un bel échec : La Bataille des Pyramides de François-André Vincent', in Mélanges offerts à Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, Versailles 2009, pp. 102-105, fig. 7, note 26;

J.-P. Cuzin, François-André Vincent 1746-1816 entre Fragonard et David, Paris 2013, p. 502, no. 666 D;

P.-J. Chalençon, Napoléon. La collection, Paris 2019, pp. 18-21 (as a command from Napoleon for the Château de Grosbois).

Between 1809 and 1810, at the request of Maréchal Berthier, who had a gallery of battle scenes in his Château de Grosbois, near Boissy-Saint-Léger, François-André Vincent painted a Battle of the Pyramids, an engagement in which Berthier had taken part. This large canvas (185 x 340 cm) glorifies the French army which, under Napoleon’s command, crushed the Mamluks, thereby opening the way to Cairo and entering the city on 24 July 1798.

The present large drawing is identical to the painting. It is therefore almost certainly a replica rather than a preparatory work; this is confirmed by the absence of any variations. The artist kept this drawing all his life, probably as a reminder of the long and trying history of his Battle of the Pyramids (see Jean-Pierre Cuzin, op. cit., p. 502).

The composition of the drawing is dynamic while retaining structure and a spacious feel. The pen has zealously captured the Mamluks on the left, as they retreat in disarray, while the French army, led by Napoleon, advances in serried ranks. His choice of a legible composition, avoiding the clash of combatants and the ensuing confusion, would certainly have reminded Vincent of the insurmountable difficulties he had faced while working on the huge canvas of the same subject (about nine metres long) which he had been commissioned to paint in 1800. It was ‘the great undertaking and the great failure in Vincent’s late career, as he could not make it come right’ (see Jean-Pierre Cuzin, op. cit., p. 494; our translation).

Some large preparatory works survive (both drawings and canvases) which show the artist’s energy as he tried to complete this vast project. Most are now in museums, while the incomplete painting, now very badly damaged, is in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

An original artist, a brilliant draughtsman and an excellent portrait painter, François-André Vincent occupies a very important place in French painting of the late eighteenth century, although his talent has often been overshadowed by that of his contemporary and rival David. He was one of the proponents of subjects taken from antiquity as well as episodes from France’s history.